State Agencies Move to Limit Telework Policies

Based on instructions from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office to review pandemic-era policies allowing government employees to work from home, Texas state agencies are moving to pull some remote workers back to the office over the next several months.

The return-to-office plans vary by agency and target most of the remote state workforce, but pre-pandemic policies allowing off-site work would still apply in limited circumstances, according to several agency officials.

Agency directors began breaking the news this week, telling their nearly 150,000 employees that the next several months will be spent addressing the challenges of bringing tens of thousands of workers back to brick-and-mortar government buildings.

“State agencies were notified today of the governor’s expectation that employees be in the office full time, as soon as practicable, in accordance with state law,” reads a Tuesday email to staffers at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).

“I realize this news causes concern for many of you. We will be communicating details as we know more,” Executive Director Courtney Arbour wrote in the email.

The policy shift comes after lawmakers used capitol budget hearings to grill agency leaders about their remote workforce and press for workers to return to offices.

In a conference call early this week, Abbott chief of staff Robert Black reminded agency executive directors that lawmakers are on the hunt for inefficiencies — and that the focus will include remote-work policies that may be too flexible or inefficient.

An Abbott spokesman said most state employees are already working on site under state labor codes, which allow agency directors to formulate remote-work policies that best suit their operations,

Those policies “must ensure taxpayer dollars are being utilized efficiently,” spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said.

“Texans expect their public servants to be present and engaged in the work on their behalf,” Mahaleris said in a prepared statement. “With remote federal workers returning to the office where possible, it’s important that state agencies ensure they do the same.”

The issue has buzzed through the capitol since early February, when lawmakers examining agency funding requests pressed for details on remote-work policies.

“If they have to have a remote [job] they need to tell us, the appropriators, why it is that they have a specific need for that, rather than that the status quo or just something they can do on a whim,” Senate Finance Chair Joan Huffman, R-Houston, said in a Feb. 3 hearing.

State government agencies and private employers moved to out-of-office work models in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic raised health concerns and closed schools and day cares, making child care impossible for some employees.

As the pandemic restrictions loosened, some employees transitioned from remote work. Even so, many employers, state agencies included, found benefits to a remote workforce that made them disinclined to update those policies.

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to bring back as many employees, 43 percent of whom have full or partial telework agreements, as possible — with the stipulation that “department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Huffman last year directed the Legislative Budget Budget board, which oversees state spending matters, to survey state agencies about the impact of post-pandemic remote work policies. The report was presented to budget writers last month.

The LBB survey, which examined policies of 96 out of 150 state agencies, including the 10 largest, found most allow at least a small portion of their workforce to do their jobs outside the office. Some agencies have up to 80 percent of their workers fully or partially remote.

“It’s a very important issue that directly involves our state budget,” Huffman said at the hearing. “Just in recent years, the state has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to build new building space and renovate existing facilities for our state employees. And at a minimum, we want to make sure that our facilities are actually utilized on a daily basis.”

Mahaleris said agencies were not given a blanket deadline to accomplish a transition to a more fully on-site workforce, allowing directors to take a calibrated approach that works for each department.

For some agencies, the transition will be modest. Most of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) nearly 40,000 employees work onsite as prison guards or staff, with fewer than 1,000 in hybrid or fully remote positions. Officials there said Thursday they were reviewing their policies.

Similarly, only 40 of the 199 employees at the Animal Health Commission don’t work on site full time, and most of them already come in at least a few days a week, according to the LBB report.

The vast majority of state agencies told the budget board flexible work policies improved recruitment and retention — one of the biggest challenges state agencies face. Officials at the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) reported an 86 percent retention rate in its technology workforce — an unusually high rate for a state agency, especially in the competitive tech job market.

Forty-six agencies said allowing employees to work outside the office has made them more productive, while 40 others said productivity wasn’t affected either way. None reported a negative impact on worker output as a result of remote work.

“We have learned over the past few years that telework can be a valuable tool when used appropriately,” Stephanie Muth, commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services, wrote in a Thursday email to staff.

Some 29 agencies said moving to more remote work had saved money by reducing office space, supplies, furniture and the cost of recruiting and retaining employees. Most said there had been no financial impact. Two agencies — the Texas Medical Board and the 10th Court of Appeals — reported having to spend more money on remote workers for things like Internet connections and phones.

Health and Human Services has reduced its work space as more than one-third of its 38,000 employees work remotely at least one day a week. In the past two years, the agency consolidated nine leases in Austin and saved about $7.6 million, according to the report.

In a memo to HHS staff Thursday, Commissioner Cecile Erwin Young said more than 70 percent of her agency’s employees have worked in the office full time for the past five years. Last year, the agency reviewed its empty office space to develop a plan to “fully occupy them” again, the memo said.

Young directed supervisors to fill those offices by the end of March, leaving it to them to devise a plan to accomplish that.

“It’s time to begin rolling out the second phase of our plan to ensure that HHS meets the expectations of state leadership and Texans,” Young wrote.

TWC has allowed remote work on a limited basis for at least the past 10 years. On Wednesday, Executive Director Ed Serna told employees that all fully or partially remote workers — nearly 80 percent of the agency’s 4,700 employees – will be required to come back by March 31.

“There will be very limited exceptions for remote workers. The parameters of this limited exception are currently being finalized and will be communicated to you by your division director,” Serna said. “I know this is a significant change to many of you.”

TDLR is requiring most workers to come back this month as well. Of its 518 employees, more than half work remotely part of the time, according to the budget board report. Fewer than 15 percent are full-time remote workers.

Arbour’s email directed TDLR executives to start reporting full time to the office on March 17. All other Austin-based employees, as well as those in satellite facilities in Fort Worth and Houston — would be expected to return starting March 31, the email said.

Exceptions to the tighter policy — at least for now — include employees who were hired with the expectation that their jobs would be 100 percent telework or home-based, the email said.

Officials at the Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) told The Dallas Morning News they’re currently “reviewing and revising” their policies.

Department of State Health Services (DSHS) officials told the budget board late last year that just more than one-third of its employees work outside the office at least part of the time, which helped the agency drop some of its leased space and avoid asking for budget increases to keep up with rising rents.

On Thursday, Texas Health Commissioner Jennifer Shuford told employees the agency will develop a plan over the next several weeks that is “as logical and seamless as possible.”

“Things like space constraints need to be taken into consideration,” Shuford’s email said. “In the meantime, I ask you to please keep doing the excellent work you’re doing. Whether you’re working on the measles outbreak response, doing legislative work, keeping day-to-day operations moving, or carrying out program work, I am grateful for you.”

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